Tagged: ABBA

The Beatles break-up has been a huge source of debate ever since they did break up way back in 1970. It was an emotional time for all, and I guess the natural thing to do was to everything on one person. In this case, it was Yoko Ono. Ono was the infamous girlfriend of John Lennon who supposedly tore the group apart in their final years, but in a recent interview, reported by BBC News, Paul McCartney said otherwise.

The full interview with David Frost will be televised later this month.

McCartney said the group was breaking up before Ono arrived on the scene, according to news articles. After more than 40 years of debate, that is the conclusion. Cased closed. It’s a little anticlimactic for my taste, but I trust McCartney. He would never lie to me. Besides The Beatles, though, what other bands suffered from the infamous girlfriend?

R&B group City High / PHOTO BY GABE PALACIO, IMAGEDIRECT

Well, if anyone remembers the R&B trio City High (“What Would You Do”), it was the front woman Claudette Ortiz who left former member Robbie Pardlo for Ryan Toby, the only other member in their group. You’d think that she would’ve realized dating around in such a small singing group would be bad news, but I guess that didn’t occur to her. Anyway, the band broke up and Robbie Pardlo went back to his alcoholic ways.

Mamas & The Papas / IMAGE VIA HOLLYWOODTODAY.NET

Another band, The Mamas & The Papas (“California Dreamin’”) had a very similar fate. Although Michelle Phillips was married to fellow band member John Phillips, she enjoyed late night visits with another bandmate, Denny Doherty. These girls really need to understand the size of the pond their fishing in and start to look elsewhere. This is just bad judgment entirely.

One of my favorites is the story of ABBA, the iconic disco group that will forever be played at every school dance and wedding. So, they started out as two married couples singing happily together while dressed in matching costumes, but what do you know? First one couple broke up, which would definitely be awkward, but the band could survive. Now here comes the surprise twist: the second couple divorced, and then it was just too damn miserable to even have the four in the same room. And that was the demise of ABBA. Ashes to ashes, glitter to glitter.

ABBA / IMAGE VIA GETTY IMAGES

Finally, I have to acknowledge Fleetwood Mac and the story of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. This relationship, which was never picture perfect, steadily got worse to the point where they broke up. That isn’t such a fabulous story in and of itself, but it continued until one final climatic point where Buckingham called Nicks a “schizophrenic bitch.” It was no question how they felt about each other after that. Eventually they did reunite, but only for tour profits.

Lesson learned? While dramatic relationships can make for excellent songs, they can also be the ruin of many excellent bands, and the break-ups are usually at the hand of a girl. Except for The Beatles.